​TeacherTecLagan College

​As we come to the end of the first school year in which iPads have been introduced to students in Lagan College, we can look back and see all the positives that have come from this new transition. Teachers are using apps like iDoceo to plan for their lessons, Showbie to reduce the amount of paper they use, and the recently launched SIMS app to have access wherever they are.

However, there have still been issues that we've been tackling throughout the year. Some of these have been specific, such as how to let students type onto Showbie documents? Others have been more general, such as how to give teachers more control over the iPads in their classroom, and how to give parents the same level of control at home?

We've been researching and evaluating the best solutions to all of these issues, and we think we've come up with the answers. And so, we're interrupting our normal flow of tips to bring you some breaking news - Showbie Pro and ZuluDesk are coming to Lagan College in August 2016!

Showbie Pro brings a ton of features that make it the perfect app for teachers and students, the most welcome being the ability to use the keyboard to type onto documents without the need of another app! ZuluDesk will be replacing the current Meraki system and it will finally give both teachers and parents control over the iPads in their classrooms and at home.

We'll be detailing all of the benefits of these two new apps over the next few weeks, and we're also working on brand new how-to guides for both Showbie Pro and ZuluDesk. To keep yourself updated on both of these exciting updates, make sure to be checking back to TeacherTec!

If you spend a lot of time writing emails on your iPad, you’ve probably been in a situation where you're writing an email, but need to quickly get some information from another email in your inbox. Mail on the iPad allows you to minimize the current email you're writing, return to your inbox to look at other messages, then open back up the email you previously minimized!

This feature is so handy but isn't well known, and it's a trick that once you learn you’ll be using it on your iPad all the time!

Padlet is a resource that offers great potential, if the teacher can think of a way in which to use it effectively. Its premise is simple: a teacher can create a virtual wall onto which students can place posts. It is similar, therefore, to the classic plenary activity where the ideas of different groups are written on post-its before being added to a poster for later review.

Many thanks to Raymond Cummings for writing this article based on his personal experiences using the Padlet app to share information with his class!

Sometimes it can be really handy to take a photo of whatever is on your iPad's screen, also known as a screenshot. Maybe you want to demonstrate something to someone in an email, or remember something that's popped up on your screen!

Here at TeacherTec we love to share experiences from staff who are using Technology in their classrooms. This week we caught up with Maria McConville to see how she has been using Google Classroom in her teaching, what issues she's encountered so far and what advice she would give to someone starting for the first time!​Many thanks to Maria for catching up with us this week!

Slide Over lets you quickly access an app whilst you already have one open. You could quickly check your calendar while typing an email, add to your notes while browsing the web, or do some other brief task while staying in the app you're in.

Some students can use this to be sneaky in class, to quickly open a game or their Instagram while a teacher isn't looking, then open them back when the coast is clear!​

At this point in the year, you're probably starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All your senior students have left on study-leave and all of a sudden you're left with this strange thing called 'free-time'. Well, now is the perfect opportunity to experiment and learn about that new app you've been dying to try out, especially in preparation for next year!

We've scheduled to re-run a couple of popular sessions in May on Google Classroom, Google Drive and Showbie. Then in June we're going to finish off the year with organising your digital planner in iDoceo, tapping into the power of the Interactive Whiteboard that's behind you in every class, before ending by creating an online space for your digital resources using Weebly.

Spaces may be limited, so be sure to book your place today using our Training calendar!

Take a second to think about how many pages you print or photocopy in just one week for your classes. Then think about how many pages of homework you collect in from your students each week. Multiply that by 39 weeks - that's a lot of paper!

Lately, a new crop of apps have emerged such as ShowbieandGoogle Classroomthat boast a number of benefits to embracing a 'Paperless Classroom'. Here are our Top 3 advantages to joining the revolution!